Joe McGuire

The discourse around McGuire isn't loud, but it's persistent: an incumbent who was steady as a 2024 starter, then wobbled enough in 2025 that Day kept getting asked about it. His answer never changed — McGuire stays — but the framing did. "I think it's been solid, but I know we can do better," Day said of the punt game, and in Columbus, where special teams is treated as a point of pride, "we can do better" reads less like reassurance and more like a deadline. The numbers underneath are honest about it: 29 punts for 1,229 yards in 2025, a 42.4-yard average, 12 pinned inside the 20 and a long of 55. Solid. Not the weapon a national-title roster expects to win the field-position game.

So Ohio State did what contenders do — it added a hedge. Former Houston Christian punter Brady Young transferred in to compete for the job, and his career line (a near-identical 42.3 average, a longer 61-yard career boot) is close enough that the room is now a real competition rather than a coronation. Add the long-running murmur about fellow Aussie Nick McLarty, the 6-7 backup some fans wanted to see, and McGuire enters fall camp as the most scrutinized leg on a roster full of skill-position stars.

The stake is simple and very 2026: the coach who refused to bench him in October now has a credible alternative on scholarship. McGuire either answers the 'we can do better' with a cleaner season — fewer shanks, more pin-deep precision — or he becomes the cautionary tale of the punter who got comfortable. For a guy whose whole pitch has been 'always be ready,' the readiness test finally has a name across the locker on the depth chart.